How do antidepressants work? If you do not go into details, then antidepressants can correct the work of some brain mechanisms. Our brain consists of a huge number of nerve cells – neurons. Although there are connections between neurons, they do not touch each other directly – there is a gap between them, which is called a synaptic cleft or just a synapse.

How do antidepressants work?

The task of transferring information from one neutron to another and transferring it through the synapse is performed by a chemical mediator-mediator (from the Latin mediator-mediator). According to the biological theory of depression – during depression in the brain, the concentration of some mediators in the synapse decreases. The biochemical processes of our brain are very complex, and hundreds of different mediators take part in them. To date, only 30 have been isolated from them, and three mediators are directly related to depression. This is norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. They are called biogenic amines. Antidepressants, regulating the concentration of one or more biogenic amines, correct the mechanisms of the brain that were disturbed by depression. Let’s move from the mechanisms of action of drugs, which, probably, not everyone is interested in, to everyday issues.

Antidepressants – household issues
It is better to use medicines at the beginning of the disease than at the last minute. Publius Sir

Among the “normal” people there is an opinion that “antidepressants are very harmful”, “they can go crazy”, “get used to them for life”, etc. Is this true? Of course, there is no smoke without fire, but fire is the cost of Soviet psychiatry, when strong remedies “just in case” were prescribed in large doses with the corresponding results. In the rest of the world, the attitude towards drugs is completely different. To date, about 65 percent of the US population is taking psychotropic drugs (primarily antidepressants and tranquilizers).

There is a stereotype that taking antidepressants is a manifestation of a weak character. But at the same time, people who suffer from other diseases, such as hypertension or polyarthritis, take medication during periods of exacerbations and this is considered normal. For example, aspirin is not able to cure polyarthritis, but it can relieve pain in the joints and thereby alleviate the physical suffering of the patient. Unfortunately, in our society there is still a stereotype that depression is weak-willedness, non-assortment, and only a few understand that depression is the same disease that requires treatment. Yes, antidepressants can not always relieve depression, but they can reduce pain. Only not physical, but spiritual.

For many, the issue of getting used to antidepressants is important. Will not the body demand and after the release of depression another portion of the pills of joy? You can answer more than unequivocally – the drugs used to date in the treatment of depression, do not cause addiction, regardless of the duration of treatment. They only help the body to restore those mechanisms that were disturbed by depression.

Those people whose work is related to creativity, often worried about the question, will the antidepressant drug use interfere with the processes that are responsible for creativity? In most cases, depression does not have the best effect on creativity, but most often makes it impossible. Antidepressants are able to restore a broken inner world and restore the ability to create a person’s ability to create, because most often creativity contributes to mental health.

The task of a psychiatrist is to select the right preparations. Only half of the patients experience improvement after the first course of therapy, so that the selection of drugs can be called trial and error. A doctor can prescribe several drugs before he finds the most effective one. In many clinics, it is practiced to prescribe free drugs to persons who are on psychiatric records. Since the cost of the drugs of the last generations can reach $ 50-100, and they can be written down several types, imagine how much it can cost. Although – they say that over the past 30 years nothing better and stronger than the good old amyltriptilena has not been invented. New drugs basically differ in contraindications (they are much less) and at a price (it is much higher).

The effect of the drug is not immediately apparent – usually between the time of the beginning of the reception and the appearance of a positive effect is not less than 2-3 weeks, although in some cases, positive mood changes may appear in one week. For someone, drugs are a panacea, and a person who has tried to escape from depression for many months unsuccessfully comes to life right before our eyes. Someone they are able to remove only some of the depressive symptoms. But there are people on whom drug therapy does not affect. Do not rush to rank yourself in the last category – everything is very individual